Philobiblon

It is an old adage, but one scientists seem to never learn. If you ramp up biological productivity, by breeding cows to be mere milk-producing machines, by using huge quantities of fertilisers, or by dumping shit in fish ponds, you might get more output, but you’ll also get environmental and other side-effects. The latest, quite possibly the spread of bird flu:

Bird flu may be spread by using chicken dung as food in fish farms, a practice now routine in Asia, according to the world’s leading bird conservation organisation.
Fertilising fish ponds with poultry faeces, which can dramatically improve fish growth, may set up major new reservoirs of avian influenza infection if the chickens providing the manure are infected themselves, according to BirdLife International, the Cambridge-based umbrella body for bird protection groups in 100 countries.
The suggestion, which has echoes of the BSE outbreak in Britain – when cattle were infected by their food – puts a question mark over a technique firmly backed by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as a primary means of providing protein for mushrooming populations in developing countries.
Known as integrated livestock-fish farming, the technique involves transferring the wastes from raising pigs, ducks or chickens directly to fish farms. At the right dosage, the nutrients in the manure give an enormous boost to the growth of plankton in the ponds, which are the main food of fish such as carp and tilapia.

(I’ve quoted quite a bit of that because it will disappear behind a paywall in a few days.)

But in an early bid for an IgNobel prize, a scientist has calculated Earth could hold a population of 1.3 million billion. That is on the basis of their heat production alone not overheating the planet. Which means?

Assuming that every person emits 120 watts of heat and that it would be uncomfortable if the average temperature at the Earth’s surface rose too much, the researchers declared the Earth could sustain 1.3 million billion people without overheating.
Writing in the journal, the researchers acknowledge the Earth’s resources could be put under severe strain long before the theoretical population peak is reached. “Constraints like food availability or physiological necessities may become critical in the relatively near future. But they are subjected to a continuous change as a result of the development of human civilisation and technology,” Dr Badescu said.

It seems some parts of science have still to recognise the dangers of their own arrogance.

I had cause to cross Oxford Street a couple of times today (a great exhibition at the National Gallery was one of the causes, but more on that tomorrow). It was heaving, swarming, overflowing – it is hard to think of an adequate adjective – with sale shoppers. The radio also carried the usual reports of traffic chaos around the big shopping centres; the hunters were out after so-called “bargains”.

No, I wasn’t joining them, at least not directly. I do most of my shopping these days on eBay (or on La Redoute for staples like white T-shirts). I don’t go into an actual physical shop unless I can’t possibly avoid it.

But I do eventually expect to be a beneficiary of the sales; lots of the items I buy on eBay, usually “BNWT” (Brand New With Tags) have sale markings on them. For example I’ve got a pair of bone-coloured leather boots that I bought, unworn, on eBay for £20. The woman who sold them to me explained they “didn’t quite match the colour of her outfit”. She’d paid £50, marked down from £150.

She no doubt thought she was getting a bargain, but it is hardly a bargain if you never wear the item concerned.

I suspect that will be the fate of many of the sale items bought today – buying something “because it is cheap” can be terribly tempting.

China is strengthening penalties for those involved in the abortion of female foetuses. With the ratio of males to females 119-100, it seems to me this won’t be enough. More needs to be done about ensuring girls are valued, although I suppose eventually the value of shortage will take care of that.

Taking the Pill may greatly reduce the risk of MS. There are undoubtedly both health advantages and disadvantages about the Pill. I’m suspicious of those who make great fuss about disadvantages, as there’s often some moralistic agenda behind it: women controlling their own bodies – terrible, unnatural!

I was sold some years ago on the theory that to have 12 periods a year, year after year, is entirely “unnatural”, so changing that, by taking Pill packets three at a time, is actually taking your body back closer to what countless generations have experienced before us. Also has the great virtue of convenience!

Finally, surprise surprise “Make Poverty History” has done nothing of the sort. You’ll see in the sidebar one of the charities that I support – Ethiopiaid and particularly its Fistula Hospital – and I wanted to note that Tim Worstall is using “Mr Google” to raise money for it.

The next carnival will be on Reappropriate. Submissions are due by January 3, by email to jenn AT reappropriate DOT com. Or there’s a nifty Technorati tag submission method.

Jenn is asking particularly for posts about “feminism of colour, and the intersection between race and gender”. But all other subjects are welcome. And don’t forget, you can nominate yourself!

London has always been a city of incomers. In medieval and early modern times, “foreigners” were people who came from a different county, and Londoners mainly were foreigners. With its birth rate less than its death rate, the city needed, and still needs, new blood coming in all of the time to keep it going, let alone growing.

I’m one such incomer, but count my blessings in that I came into the city with professional skills, a bit of capital, and a few friends to start a support network. Many others start with far less.

This week’s Time Out continues the story of a 23-year-old Pole who arrived in London from a small, poor village, not speaking English. Wiola Andrzejewska started working in a factory without proper employment conditions, was sacked without notice, but gradually developed a network of cleaning and babysitting jobs. Going back to her home town – flying for the first time (having arrived by bus!), wearing London fashions and comparing her achievements to those of her peers who stayed at home, she realises that she has come a long way.

For others, however, London is not a place of upward mobility. That’s the case with Najwa, the central character in Leila Aboulela’s novel Minaret. She arrives as an asylum-seeker, but one who, at first glance, has all of the resources necessary to make a success of her life in the city. Her family has money – rather a lot of money – which is what got them into trouble in their native Sudan in the first place, with her father held and then executed for corruption after a coup. She has at least part of a university education, excellent English from a private school education in Khartoum, and a network of helpful relatives – everything, it seems to succeed. READ MORE

Cycling into work last night (was doing one last shift at the Indy), I was stopped outside South Quay station (near Canary Wharf) by a 30-something Sri Lankan man, with a strong accident, who asked me, in tones of some shock, where he could find a church.

Now in the temple of Mammon that is Canary Wharf, that is quite a question. I sent him off to the older area of the Isle of Dogs which, looking at the map, I see was more or less the right direction. (Although whether any church would have been open would be another question.)

A church, in London, at Christmas. What an odd request. Not one a local is likely to be making.